Hot and humid climates present some of the most complex challenges for sustainable building designs. High temperatures coupled with high humidity create extreme comfort problems and exacerbate the potential for condensation, mold and mildew. These are usually remedied with conventional mechanical air conditioning systems, but the move toward sustainability urges designers to find less energy intensive solutions. An integrated design process coupled with energy modeling and lifecycle analysis can unite design teams around desired outcomes to provide an optimized design solution for projects in these climates. Such an approach involves first minimizing building loads and then reducing residual energy consumed by the HVAC systems.
This paper presents an integrated design approach to evaluating the most efficient energy measures in hot and humid climates and summarizes the findings of a series of cases using this approach, including international examples of office, education, and small retail buildings in ASHRAE Climate Zones 1A and 2A.